Despite dozens of allegations, new public testimony before Congress and the threat of subpoenas, the NFL announced on Friday that Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder will get a say as to whether or not the league's investigation into him and his team's culture will become public.
Nearly eight months after the NFL concluded its investigation into the workplace culture surrounding the team and levied a $10 million fine, new allegations directly implicating and accusing Snyder have emerged this week after the House Oversight and Reform Committee announced it was looking into the NFL's handling of the investigation.
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Snyder denied the allegations in a statement.
"The allegations leveled against me personally in today’s roundtable — many of which are well over 13 years old — are outright lies. I unequivocally deny having participated in any such conduct, at any time and with respect to any person," he said in part.
The committee, which announced its intentions to investigate back in October of 2021, was looking into "the Washington Football Team’s (WFT) hostile workplace culture and NFL's handling of this matter." The full release from the Committee can be read here.
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Originally, attorney Beth Wilkinson was retained to run the investigation, before the NFL took it over.
Now, though, it remains to be seen whether any findings from Wilkinson's or the NFL's investigation will be made public after the committee released a "Common Interest Agreement" which is an attempt to broaden the scope of attorney-client privilege under the premise that both the Commanders and the NFL have common legal interests in the investigations.
How the NFL, Snyder could block the release
Under the terms of the agreement: "the Parties agree that neither WFT nor NFL shall have the authority to waive any applicable privilege, doctrine, or protection relating to any information and communications that are exchanged."
As Sportico's Michael McCann points out, the NFL has the ultimate authority to decide what documents and information, if any, may ultimately get revealed.
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The committee also released a letter to commissioner Roger Goodell that called into question the intentions behind the agreement.
"This arrangement calls into question whether the WFT played a role in blocking the public release of the findings of Ms. Wilkinson’s investigation — and in particular whether Mr. Snyder, who had an interest in the outcome of the investigation as the owner of the team, may have been able to prevent the release of information that implicated him personally," Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Raja Krishnamoorthi wrote in their letter.
Snyder's attorney Jordan Seiv released a statement, as did the NFL.
In Siev's statement, he claims the team has not interfered with the investigation and will produce more documents "soon."
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The NFL also released a statement through spokesman Brian McCarthy, which says in part the league has already released 80,000 pages of documents and that it will review the league's letter and respond.
Dissatisfied with what's been released so far, the committee, which has subpoena power, said it plans to use it or "alternate means of obtaining compliance" if the full documents and findings related to Beth Wilkinson's investigation aren't released by Feb. 14, the day after the Super Bowl.
The Commanders first came under investigation in July 2020 after 12 former team employees detailed harassment and abuse they sustained by higher-ups in the organization.
In the initial complaint, Snyder was not directly implicated, though he was said to have inadequately punished the people in question and put in place preventative measures.